


Brand New Reality

by cumberverse



Category: Half-Life, Portal (Video Game)
Genre: Cave said "fuck it time to become a cyborg"
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-17
Updated: 2020-06-17
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:41:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24763270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cumberverse/pseuds/cumberverse
Summary: What if Cave Johnson was elected by the Combine to be humanity's spokesman instead of Dr. Breen?
Kudos: 14





	Brand New Reality

**Author's Note:**

> I had no title for this but I'm listening to the PnF soundtrack and the song seemed to fit the title lmao

Gordon steps off the train. Confused, unsure of himself, but mostly confused. The man who put him into stasis didn't explain much. Just woke him up, monologued then dropped him on the train.

Gordon flexes his left hand, it feels cold now that the corporal is no longer gripping it. He silently hopes that Adrian is still safe in stasis without him there.

The labcoat and dress clothes don't offer him any more comfort as he searches the area. He draws the coat closer around himself as the wind picks up and chills him to the core.

The area they stopped at isn't clean. Sure, people weren't all that clean before the resonance cascade. But this is on a whole new level.

Boxes are scattered everywhere and there's trash drifting in the wind and rolling on the ground.

An uneasy feeling makes itself home in Gordon's stomach as he ventures closer to the building looming in front of him.

Gordon stops dead in his tracks as a screen lights up with a familiar face. "Cave Johnson here! Welcome to City 17. Yes, yes, I know, THE City 17. You may have chosen, been chosen or relocated to this glorious city. Whatever the case is for your arrival here, it's an absolute honour to be here.

"I thought so much of this city that I decided to bring and locate my Administration here in the Citadel that was graciously giften to us by our Benefactors."

The face of Cave contorts to a blank for a few seconds before spitting back into a lively expression. "Now, I've been so proud to call City 17 my home. So, whether you're just passing on through to your next stop or here to stay: we welcome you with open arms. Trust me when I say that it's safer here. Cave Johnson, we're done here 'till the next loop of this message."

The screen goes blank for a few moments then the message starts repeating.

Gordon still hasn't moved and no one has bothered to move him on. The message continues looping, and with every loop Gordon finds something wrong with the man projected on the screen.

This man, who claims to be Cave Johnson, is definitely not who he was when he was put into stasis.

Gordon remembers back to before the cascade, hearing about how Cave Johnson had almost cannibalized half his body to save himself from dying of moon rock poisoning.

But he looked human, which was a shock to the entire population that truly understood what Cave pulled off.

How Cave had managed to pull off becoming a fully convincing and fully functioning cyborg in the late 80s was beyond anything anyone had ever worked on before.

Cave had still been alive and working well into Gordon working at Black Mesa.

But now... Cave looks less human. Almost like he devolved to what he should've looked like in the 80s.

His eyes are mismatched, the right eye looks like it should be brown but has an orange tint to the entirety of it, and is faded darker than the other like a screen losing it's light.

Cave's actions, while as lively as they've ever been, are more jerky. Like his robotic parts can't properly comprehend what Cave wants them to do.

Around his neck, there's a strip looping around that is definitely not normal. It looks close enough to being flesh coloured that you wouldn't botice at a glance that it is definitely not his own skin tone and that the strip looks almost like a shock collar.

One loop, Gordon notices that Cave's left hand is nothing like a human's should be. It's patchy in his colouration, like the paint has chipped off. One finger is missing it's tip and has tape stuck on it. At least the tape is his skin colour. The entire shape of his hand is off, like a baby designing what it thinks a hand is.

'What happened to him...?' Gordon thinks, swallowing nervously.

Gordon tears his eyes from the screen, deciding to worry about that later. He had bigger things to deal with. Like figuring his way through City 17 and figure out what the hell was going on.


End file.
